New York City revisited...

So, last Friday, I went to work early, started work at 7am, and had my lunch at my desk, hence, I left office at 3.30pm. After I checked that I had everything packed, I left my sublet and started walking to the Worcester Union Station at 4.30pm. It took me about 30 minutes to walk there. And it was quite a scary walk, as Worcester is not an ideal town to travel around by foot.

It cost $7.75 to travel from Worcester to South Station, Boston (the last station) and the journey took about 90 minutes. I left the Worcester station at 5.38pm, and reached Boston just after 7pm. The bus station is connected to the train station, and I was there waiting for my bus in no time. There's a huge line waiting for the bus to Boston, (the greyhound bus system works in a way that they will just sell ticket without controlling how many they sold, and it's passengers' responsibility to wait for their bus early on to make sure that they get on the bus they wish, if the bus is oversold, they will have to wait for the next bus. I thought they got really oversold, but apparently, 2 buses was delayed because of an accident en route to NY or something like that. I boarded the bus at 9pm, instead of 8pm that I wanted. While waiting in line, a guy tried to cut the queue, into a position 3 people in front of me, and the guy in front of me called him out, and they had an exchange of words, and that guy insisted that he was waiting in line for awhile, but he 'forgot' to move in front... a lady (and all of us) didn't buy it, but we tolerated for awhile. And then, a cop walked by, and the lady told the cop about the incident, and that dude was thrown to the back of the line. :)

So, I reached Times Square (42nd St) of New York city at about 1.15am. Met up with Teck Hua at about 1.20am. Then, we went to Astor Place for Japanese food, and from there, walked to his place(where I crashed at for the next 2 nights), reaching at about 3.00am.

The next morning, I woke up at 9am, thanks to my body clock, (6 hours of sleep), and I spent the next 2 hours watching 'The Soup!' and ESPN. Then, Teck Hua, woke up at about 11am, and, we left for Chinatown at about noon. We walked around, and damn, it's like Kuala Lumpur's Petaling St. "Miss, handbag? Gucci, Fendi, Coach?" "DVD!" "Perfume?!" All the road-peddlers with counterfeit items... And the place was packed!
Summer Fair!
So, we walked around, and discovered the NYC Summer Fair (every third Saturday of July), where there's lotsa food stalls, and other handicrafts and stuff on sale on the street.


For lunch, Teck Hua and I met up with Melissa and May Ying, we were at Canal St. (Chinatown) earlier, and was walking while waiting for them to come. Waiting.. waiting... waiting...Waiting to meet up with us, and I took this picture from across the street. :P

So, for lunch, we went to 'Nyonya', a Malaysian restaurant in Little Italy. The food was great, more authentic than Penang's (the restaurant chain) and more reasonably priced.
There's also a fair going on in Little Italy.
And yes, I took this shot in New York City. There's a park where a lot of senior citizens, 90+ % Asian, hang out... We walked by this park, after lunch, from Chinatown towards Wall St.
Snapping some pictures along the way... This is the NY Court House.
And that's LAI(me)!!!
Reaching Wall St. (smiling ear-to-ear from L-R: May Ying, Teck Hua and Melissa)
Us (Melissa, I and May Ying) in front of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Well, as a tourist in Wall St., one thing that you must do is to take photo with the Golden Bull. As I previously took one, and there's a huge crowd in front of it this time, I didn't take one with the big bull. There are actually 2 smaller bulls (one bronze and another silver) near Merrill Lynch's HQ. As it is still a hidden secret, nobody was there, and we took full advantage of the photo opportunities.
The four of us in front of Merrill Lynch's HQ. (not really in front of, but the HQ as background).
While the smaller bull is easy to be mounted by some. It still proves to be a challenge for others, like kids...

and Melissa. :P
She did manage to get on it, but, I decided not to put it up here. :)
Teck Hua and I.
And also, the bull was touched.
Not to mention, the weather was great. Sunny weather, about 30 Celcius hot!
Not sure why this picture turned out like that.
'Putera lilin'...

So, we went to this Peruvian restaurant, Pio Pio for dinner. The chicken was amazing, and the price, was very very reasonable. Thanks to my cousin's husband (is there a genealogical term for it?), Tomas for recommending this place. With dinner (and Sangria) including tips, it only cost us
$13 per person. For dinner, we met up with Sui Lin, and Jon San, and also, Teck Hua's roommate, Crispin.

Before....
After:
(just kidding... pidgeons -//-> chicken... just like you can't turn coal into gold.)
Fried plantains, and rice + beans. And also the amazingly good green sauce (to go with the roasted chicken).
After dinner, we went to TimesSquare's AMC to catch a movie. We saw I know pronounced you Chuck and Larry. It was a really funny movie, and kinda a movie that increase LGBT awareness in a backhanded way.TimesSquare in the evening...
After the movie, taking subway to a lounge. (May Ying, Sui Lin and Mel... exhausted...)
At the lounge, a really cool place (it was much darker, but with the flash, this is the end result).
From L-R, Jon San, me, Teck Hua, May Ying, Melisssa, Sui Lin, and Crispin...

So, that's pretty much my short trip to New York city. After this, we parted ways, and Crispin cooked us really good mee goreng...

So, it was all good. The next morning, woke up at 9.06am (I checked my watched), again, 6 hours of sleep, but seeing it was still early, I went back to bed, woke up at 10.35am, and packed and all, and left Teck Hua's place at 11.30am for the NY Port Authority to catch my 12.30pm bus back to Boston. Reached Boston at 5.00pm, and had a McD dinner, and caught the 6pm train back to Worcester, reaching at 7.40pm, and took a scarier walk back to my sublet, reaching at 8.10pm. It was still bright out, but, it was really scary. I think I will not walk along in Worcester downtown anymore. The conversation I overheard on my walk back from the station to my sublet, and also the broken glasses on the walkway are really scary.